Suddenly, Shirou stopped moving. He clicked his tongue and jumped backwards with a bitter expression.
"Caster, we're withdrawing. That girl has 'noticed' it faster than I thought. This must... be due to some kind of Revelation skill on her part."
Berserker of Black was bewildered by Shirou's sudden widening of the distance between them, and she decided to just wait and see what he did for the time being.
"I did hear that those chosen for the Ruler class are mostly saints due to their impartial judgement. So she's one of those types, huh?"
Caster of Red shrugged in a sarcastic manner.
"So it seems... This is a critical situation, Caster. If she denounces me, the situation will turn extremely chaotic. No, to put it in your words, it would become uninteresting."
"Trying to forcibly stretch out parts that aren't very exciting is a sign of poor writing. That being the case, let's end the story of my Master of the battlefield for the time being."
"Yes, let's withdraw. —Well, to look at it another way: it's good enough that we managed to weather through this. Very soon, everything will change into a situation that even Ruler won't be able to do anything about. And it seems I really am in the right, since I managed to avoid 'death' by a paper-thin distance."
Saying that, Shirou stabbed Black Keys into the ground, forming a wall in front of Berserker of Black as she tried to step forward. He and Caster then began withdrawing from the battlefield at full speed.
"Master. That damn Ruler is pushing her way straight towards you without faltering. Hurry! The Dragon Tooth Warriors can't hold her back!"
"I know!"
Slightly impatient, Shirou quickly shelved away the warning and increased his speed further... Within the dark forest where there was no light—with not even the moonlight shining well through the trees—Shirou ran at full speed without paying any heed to the near-absolute darkness. His speed was, to put it in a single phrase, beyond abnormal. Easily exceeding sixty kilometers per hour, Shirou simply ran and ran.
...However, there was someone chasing after him in hot pursuit. Seeing her over his shoulder, Shirou widened his eyes slightly.
"Berserker of Black... To think you would chase after me."
The instant she saw the wall of Black Keys, Berserker decided to pursue the Master known as Shirou. It was due to something that could be called intuition, which should have had no connection with an artificial human like her.
Caules had told her to search for other Servants elsewhere if the Master and Servant she faced ran away, but she had refused the order with one of her usual moans.
In any case—though she herself didn't really understand what it was that bugged her.
She felt that it was bad to let this man escape here. That Master was definitely abnormal. No, in the first place, was he really a Master?
If she were to say what he was based on the feeling running down her skin, it would be—
"——uu!?"
As if stitching her brief moment of thought, four blades shot right at her. The man had apparently thrown Black Keys as he ran away without even looking back at her.
Berserker of Black instantly grasped the best option here. That is, she ignored them.
She didn't feel pain; what she received was only damage as a numerical value. That wasn't a big deal either. In the end, the blades compiled out of prana possessed meager physical destructive power and weren't sufficient to defeat a Servant.
